Touted as India's next batting star, Ambati Rayudu caught everyone's eye when he started training at the National Cricket Academy in 2001. However, the short, compact and aggressive right-ha...Full profile

Touted as India's next batting star, Ambati Rayudu caught everyone's eye when he started training at the National Cricket Academy in 2001. However, the short, compact and aggressive right-handed batsman Rayudu took a long-time to break into international circuit.

Rayudu was the captain of the Indian Under-19 team and led them to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004. But in the next few years, he failed to live upto the expectations and lost his way at the domestic level. As a result, several of his Under-19 team-mates like Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Shikhar Dhawan, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan went on to represent the national side much before him. Rayudu, who played for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, opted to move to Andhra Pradesh after differences with the coach. He had impressed in his debut Ranji season, scoring a double-century and a century in the same match. In 2010-11, Rayudu decided to play for Baroda and racked up a total of 566 runs in nine matches. In the 2012-13 Ranji season, he was even better, scoring 666 runs including a hundred and seven fifties. He played for Rest of India in the 2013 Irani Cup against Mumbai and scored 51 and 156*. He was also the top-scorer in the 2012–13 Deodhar Trophy final, where his innings of 78* helped West Zone chase down the target of 290 against North Zone.

Rayudu was one of the first players to join the Indian Cricket League when it came calling in 2007. He was awed by the opportunity to play alongside foreign players and make a name in front of the television audiences. When the ICL was dissolved, Rayudu accepted BCCI's amnesty offer in 2009 and was picked up by Mumbai to play in their IPL side soon after. Playing as a middle-order batsman and part-time wicket-keeper for the Mumbai franchise, Rayudu has been consistently scoring runs in every IPL edition since then.

In 2012, Rayudu was named in the 30-man probable squad for the World T20 but failed to make it to the final team. He was then selected for the T20 series against England as a replacement for the injured Manoj Tiwary, but yet again failed to make it to the playing XI. His chance of playing for the national side finally materialised in July 2013 when he was picked up for the Zimbabwe tour. He went on to make a gritty 63* on debut, becoming the oldest Indian player, at the age of 27 years and 304 days, to score an ODI fifty on debut.

Rayudu was named in both the Test and ODI squads for the South Africa tour in December 2013. Though he didn't get a game there, he played a couple of ODIs in New Zealand before getting a decent run in the Asia Cup. His IPL franchise decided to retain him for 2014, after performing consistently. He was given a good run in ODIs since the Asia Cup and registered his maiden ODI century against Sri Lanka in the second ODI in Ahmedabad. He is surely, a player to watch out for in the near future and the selectors showed faith in him and named him in the squad for the 2015 World Cup. However, he did not get to play a single game.